SEO Considerations When Moving Your Website

We see it time and time again – someone switches website design companies, buys a new domain name and/or decides to redesign or re-develop their website without proper consultation or forethought. The usual outcome? Not good!

Most website owners don’t know the necessary steps that must be considered and many times implemented in order to assure that any value in their existing website does not get lost altogether.

That time is no more; I am going to provide you with the necessary things to consider before your website is moved / overhauled and also the essential things to implement when you are ready to make the move and/or bring in the bulldozers.

Please note that recommendations are different for moving to a new IP address.

I highly recommend that you consult with an SEO professional before trying to implement any of this yourself if you do not have a good understanding of the concepts and reasoning behind these steps.

BEFORE You Move / Overhaul Your Website

What kind of natural value does your website currently have?

Only once you become aware of what your site’s natural value is should you even consider moving or completely overhauling your website.

Check your site’s key terms and phrases to see where they are ranking in the search engine’s natural results. Moving or completely overhauling your site may cause your new site to lose those established rankings as search engines need to re-index all of your new information.

Not sure what your site’s keywords are?

Check your site analytics to see which keywords are bringing you the most traffic

Analyze your site’s backlinks that have been accumulated over time. Moving or completely overhauling your site will most likely cause multiple broken backlinks, thus significantly hurting the value they have been sending your site.

Not sure what your site’s backlinks are or how to check them

Check your site analytics to see which websites / urls are linking to your website

This whole process is most definitely not simple or quick. However, these necessary steps will help to ensure that any value that your website has accrued does not get completely lost. Although a lot of this is somewhat more technical than average website owner is used to, it is all very essential to a successful search engine optimization start up and maintenance campaign.

As always, if you need any help along the way, our team is more than happy to assist you in this whole process. Just let us know by emailing us or dropping us a comment below.